Paris, 3 December 2008 – The European Security and Defence Policy (ESDP) will not succeed without much stronger public support than is now the case and that will be achieved only with adequate political and financial commitment from EU member states, according to John Greenway (United Kingdom, Federated Group).

Presenting a report entitled “The public response to international military operations” which was adopted unanimously, Mr Greenway said that national parliamentarians are required to vote for expenditure on ESDP missions that are often little known or understood by their electorates. “There is a direct link between the capability constraints in Chad and a lack of public support”, he said.

Media coverage of Afghanistan and other conflict zones has helped undermine support for military intervention and “encouraged a belief that some international missions are of no relevance to an individual country and that troops should be withdrawn before more are killed”, he asserted. “We have a special responsibility to put the arguments for why (…) it is in our countries’ interests that we deploy our troops to places well beyond our borders”.

The report, submitted on behalf of the Committee for Parliamentary and Public Relations, called for the establishment of a communication strategy to demonstrate more clearly the direct link between the ESDP and the interests of European people and which should include a detailed explanation of ESDP missions. It also recommended that the communication sector should be furnished with adequate resources, and that full use be made of the opportunities provided by the Assembly for increasing dialogue with national parliaments, intergovernmental bodies and the general public.

Improved communications “is not just about giving European operations and peace missions greater visibility”, Mr Greenway said. “It is also about presenting a reinvigorated argument to highlight contemporary threats to daily life in today’s world, including terrorism, organised crime, trafficking in arms, drugs and human beings, chemical and biological weapons, cyber crime, maritime piracy and energy supply”, he declared. “Those threats are not distant but real and potentially disastrous”.